November 4, 2004

Well I finally got my dentist appointment and went and had my top two wisdom teeth pulled out today. I’m officially fresh out of wisdom, as all of my wisdom teeth are now gone.

It wasn’t as nearly as bad as I thought it would be. The shots of novacaine (or reasonable fascimile thereof) were the worst part. When I was in on Monday, the dentist alluded to major oral surgery with curved roots and general mayhem going on in the back of my mouth. But the oral surgeon said that I had a pair of the easiest teeth to pull that he’s seen in quite a while. I think he was just flirting with me. “Hey sexy, easy teeth.”

Apparently, since my bottom wisdom teeth were pulled a decade or two ago, the top teeth had room to move and so they were all there just ready for a pair of pliers. A yank and another yank and a odd feeling in my sinus cavities and whoops, there they go! I was morbidly interested in seeing the teeth but I wasn’t fortunate to experience that. I was curious as to what the outside of my wisdom teeth looked like, because I could never see them when they were in my mouth, being slammed up against the inside of my cheek and all. It’s going to be kind of groovy, because now I won’t be biting my cheek as much.

Ironically, the side of my mouth that wasn’t infected is hurting more than the side that was. I wonder why that is. It’s not a bad pain, just sort of like a bruise or something. And it’s been over four hours and there’s absolutely no sign of swelling. Which is a very good thing, because I was concerned about that, being as vain as I am.

So tomorrow I head back to work to enjoy a Friday with my co-workers, armed with a Thermos of fake-chicken soup. I’m glad to be beyond this milepost.

The more I think about the outcome of yesterday?s election, the more fired up I become about the whole cause. I definitely feel the need to become more involved. I see a curve in my life path. This could be interesting.

The more I think through my anger and disappointment about the outcome of yesterday’s election, the more I get fired up. So I’ve started a political blog called Fired Up! You’ll see a link to it from the main page as well as right from this page.

I’ve decided to keep my political views separate, at least for the most part, from this blog because I try to comment on the lighter side of life here and the fight for the White House in 2008 is definitely not going to fit into the lighter side of things. We have three years and 364 days to get our ducks in a row, so to speak and I’m going to start tonight.

I’ve never imagined myself as a person to be that politically minded. Years ago it was “yeah, yeah, he’s cute, he seems to make sense, I’ll vote for him.” This is the first election that I really paid attention to the issues and made a well educated decision when I entered the voting booth. Apparently, that’s not good enough. I need to make my feelings known, my beliefs heard and I need to influence people around me. This doesn’t mean that I’m going to be a dreadful bore at all the parties I go to or that I’m going to be one of those militant fools that refuses to talk to the cashier because she’s stupid enough to be working at a company as dreadful as Wal*Mart. No, no, that’s petty shit. By the way, it’s unfortunate that the girl behind the register at Wal*Mart (“Always White Trash, Always”) has to work that job at slave wages in addition to busing tables at the local diner just so she can afford formula, food and medicine for her toddler and her newborn.

So I hope you’ll take the time to read Fired Up!, but I’m not going to force you to. And please continue to join me as I observe that Life is such a sweet insanity.